Dive Brief:
- Flexport, the growing logistics company, has finalized the raising of $110 million in Series C funding at a $800 million pre-money valuation. In an exclusive reported by Tech Crunch, these numbers dwarf the $65 million raised a year ago when the company was valued at $365 million.
- Through new technology and rapid expansion, Flexport seeks to challenge established and less-nimble freight forwarding giants such as FedEx and DHL. Flexport is also attempting to position itself against competitors including Freightos, Fleet, and Haven.
- Rather than focus on established relationships, Flexport's strength is its deep analysis of data that allows it to optimize shipping routes and simplify interactions with ports, truck drivers and all others that encounter a container.
Dive Insight:
Opposing perspectives co-exist within the logistics and freight-forwarding world, representing an old guard and a new one, as well as what will happen next in freight forwarding.
Innovation is rife within the logistics world, disrupting traditional freight forwarding methods in ways no one could fathom or prepare for half a decade ago. Services such as DHL's CILLOX platform, Freightos' International Freight Index and DB Schenker's uShip are on the rise, closing in on longtime players.
Yet freight forwarders relying less on digitization than their newer competitors still argue that the business remains one based on relationships and connections. Shippers don't want to deal with the number of actors typically involved in the transaction: carriers, trucking companies, and possibly customs. Additionally, the more complex a transaction, the more steps to negotiate, details that may not be best handled by a "lowest price" digital forwarding platform.
Regardless of method chosen, freight forwarders well continue to compete with each other based on the old and the new ways of thinking. One thing to remember, however, as Flexport's digital mindset disrupts the markets is that it takes two to tango.
